Senkata - Memories of a massacre (presentation and documentary)
On 19 November 2019, the military killed ten demonstrators in the Senkata neighbourhood of El Alto, Bolivia. The massacre took place a week after the president, Evo Morales, was ousted amid allegations of fraud in the national elections.
People in El Alto, a city in the Andean highlands with a predominantly indigenous Aymara population, took to the streets to protest against the new interim government led by Jeanine Áñez. The military was exempted from criminal liability by presidential decree and sent to Senkata to crush the protests and break the blockade of the gas plant that supplies the capital. The government denied responsibility for the massacre.
For the people of El Alto, this latest episode adds to a long history of military violence, dictatorship and popular mobilisation and social movements. Our two speakers at this event, Ludwin Vega Plaza and Marcelo Vega, have worked for many years as community educators in the neighbourhood where the massacre took place. As part of a neighbourhood project in Senkata (Fundación Inti Phaj’si), they will give their account of the events of November 2019 and present how they integrate concepts of historical pedagogy and collective memory in their educational work with neighbours, children and young people.
As part of their work, they helped to make a documentary film about the events of November 2019 in collaboration with a film collective and the Association of Relatives of Missing Detainees and Martyrs for National Liberation (ASOFAMD). Based on the testimonies by victims and materials collected by the neighbours, the film documents the violence perpetrated by the state and contextualises the popular uprising against the historical background.
Parts of the documentary will be presented at the event. The documentary will be shown in Spanish with English subtitles.
Practical:
Date: 10 October 2023
Time: 16:00 - 18:00
Place: IISG, Cruquiusweg 31, Amsterdam
Free entrance
